Palenque, waterfalls, to Guatemala

Hi everyone,

Well, we've finally stopped moving for a day or so, so time for an update. After hanging out in San Cristobal for a day and getting me (Andy) more or less acclimated, we took a bus into the jungle to visit the Mayan ruins in Palenque. The ruins are from the 6th to 8th centuries, mostly, with the city reaching its peak during the reign of King Pakal, who lead the city for 68 years, from age 12 to 80, in the 600s. The road to Palenque was five hours of the most consistently stomach turningly curvy road either of us had ever been on, but it was worth every minute. The ruins themselves were a workout, climbing up intense staircases to palaces and temples in 100% humidity (100%? we don't know. a lot). Suuuuper sweaty. We took a tour in Spanish from a Mayan man from a nearby community.

We stayed in a resorty community just down the road from the ruins, El Pachan, fun and convenient and in the middle of the jungle, with all kinds of streams in between little cabins and one restaurant with live music and local hippys, where everyone ate every night. I originally thought the restaurant was named Dos Muchos (you know, like the bad pun, 'too much!') and so was majorly disappointed to realize it was actually Don Muchos. The whole place felt like a cross between a Hawaiian resort, the Jungle Book, and the Swiss Family Robinsons.

On the way back to San Cristobal we stopped at two waterfalls - Misol Ha and Agua Azul. Misol Ha is a traditional, single big fall, and was fantastic because you got to climb along the rocks behind to the other side of it. Here are some pictures of Misol Ha.

Agua Azul had, as advertised, stunningly turquoise waters. It is a series of cascades and pools and Cassie went swimming before the hot curvy ride home - by which I mean San Cristobal, but Cassie had spent s0 much time in that city by that point that it began to feel like home, I think. We made a sweet Swiss friend on the way back - it was surprising to me how many Europeans (and Australians and Israelis) there were in Chiapas and how few Americans we came across. Pictures of Agua Azul.

We got back and barely found room in a hostel, with the city packed for Halloween and Day of the Dead, and woke up early the next morning, the 31st, for an eight hour journey
south across the border into Guatemala to Quetzaltenango, nicknamed Xela (pronounced shay - la). On the trip with us was a French family with four adorable blond girls, ages about 5 to 11, who are in the first month of a year long, around the world trip. The girls were stunningly well behaved, but were going to a city past ours and still had four hours left after the eight hour journey to Xela. We hope the parent's marriage survives.

It was a little bit of a tough call to miss Day of the Dead in Mexico, but with only 10 days before our flight to Peru and plenty we want to do in Guatemala, we decided to keep moving.

Saturday night in Xela the hostel was packed with peace corps kids in town for the weekend and travelers looking for language schools or homestays with local families, but by Sunday morning we found ourselves alone in the hostel, and practically in the city. Most of the town was at the cemetery for All Saints Day, the peace corps kids returned to the small towns where they work, and most of the travelers had found schools. There were also, we hear, massive kite flying festivals in parts of the country, with some kites as big as a building, and in some pueblos in the country men celebrate All Saints by oiling up horses, getting really drunk, and then trying to ride them. We went to the cemetery with everyone else in town. Xela has a truly huge cemetery and it was jam packed with families visiting, cleaning, and adorning the graves of loved ones with flowers.

Monday we were up early for a bus to San Pedro on Lake Atitlan. The lake is not quite Tahoe big, but it's close. It is also, unfortunately, plagued with an algae infestation at the moment that is threatening to harm the tourist industry here and renders the lake unswimmable. Still, it is beautiful, ringed all around with some of Guatemala's many volcanoes. San Pedro is a small, cheap, tourist town, supposedly with a big night life, but at the moment it's too rainy to investigate fully.

Tomorrow we head to Antigua.

Love to all,
C & A